This invention relates to a product separator and, in particular, to apparatus for separating peanuts affected by aflatoxin from healthy peanuts.
Research has shown that certain table agricultural commodities are susceptible to mycotoxin producing fungi. Among the toxin producing fungi that attack agricultural products is aflatoxin which is found in peanuts. The fungi attacks both the pod and the kernel of the peanut while it is growing in the soil before the nut is harvested. After the nut has been harvested, the contaminated nuts are typically segregated manually from the unaffected nuts using only visual inspection techniques. This manual procedure has proven to be less than satisfactory in that many contaminated nuts fail to be visually detected particularly if they are in the early stages of contamination. Accordingly, some peanuts affected with aflatoxin can find their way into food products.